Global Change Science in China: Past, Present and Future

Xiaoping Yang, (Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing 100029. Email: xpyang@263.net.cn; xpyang@mail.igcas.ac.cn)

Abstract

Around thirty years after the first publication about the four Quaternary glacial events in the Alps of Europe, Chinese scientists studied the sedimentary sequences in four mountains of southern China, which were suggested to be individually correlated to each of the four glacials in Europe. This marked the beginning of the Past Global Change Science in China. In the 1950s and 1960s, investigating Quaternary geology and environment was an integral part of the national geological and geographical surveys. Through several generations' endeavors, particularly during the past three decades, China has been able to emerge as one of the major components in the world community of the Past Global Change Science. Great progresses have been achieved in China in understanding the processes and mechanisms of past regional and global changes using various records like loess-paleosol sequences, ice cores, deep ocean deposits, aeolian, lacustrine and fluvial as well as coastal landforms and deposits, speleothemes, tree rings, historical documents as well as numerical simulations. A distinct improvement in more recent years has been the increase in resolution for both spatial and temporal scales. The Past Global Change Science has contributed considerably to our knowledge about the processes of various spheres/layers in the Earth System and their linkages and interactions. As the Earth System Science is envisaged to be the future of earth sciences, the Past Global Change Science will play an even greater role in the new development of the earth sciences. The purpose of this talk is to review some of the key progresses and prospects in studying past global changes in China, with a special reference to the work that has been undertaken in drylands.